


Basic Instructions

by Garchomp445



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: 'cause most of them are kids?, Alternate Universe - Children, Children, F/F, I guess maybe, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Tons of mentioned-only characters, but validar isn't, extremely divergent au, or implied-only characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 09:56:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19827748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Garchomp445/pseuds/Garchomp445
Summary: Tharja has been ripped from her home at a young age by the Plegian army and placed in a boarding school. Her parents, of course, could not be more proud. Tharja is suspicious of everyone and everything, until she meets a couple of very weird redheads.Written for Fire Emblem Femslash Week July 2019Prompt: July 15th - Adoration





	Basic Instructions

Tharja threw her jar into the fire. Predictably, it exploded. Her teacher gasped, half the class jumped, and Tharja laughed. The other students weren’t even halfway done with their jars, and she had already ruined one. The teacher snapped,

“Tharja! That wasn’t the assignment!” He glared into the fire, “Tell me how you did that.”

“I was bored. Explosions are easier than poison clouds.” Tharja smiled and let a crackle of dark magic run over her fingers.

“You’re going to the warden’s office.” He handed her a strange medallion, “Take this.”

The warden was toothless, if it were a real punishment he’d send her straight to Validar. She lucked out. Tharja left the room as casually as possible.

She pondered the colourful, limestone walls of the school’s corridor. Its construction was odd, it was definitely part of the royal palace, but somehow it was isolated from the rest of the city. There were no exits that weren’t heavily guarded. The plegian military had finally gotten serious about recruitment, she guessed. They didn’t exactly ask her to attend politely. Tharja tossed the medallion into the air. It had the mark of Grima.

\--

The warden was absolutely ecstatic to receive the news. She escorted Tharja into a dark room and shut the door. A booming voice sang from the back of the room,

“Young student, you have proven yourself worthy to-”

“Principal Validar?”

“Ack! Tharja.” The torches around the room suddenly lit up all at once. It was Validar’s office. He glared down his nose at Tharja and grimaced, “I can’t say I’m surprised, I was warned about you.”

“Yeah, after the third time I lit my teacher on fire?” Tharja grinned. That time was especially funny, he yelped so loud the other classes heard it.

Validar shook his head, “As much as it pains me to say, you aren’t in trouble this time. You’re being promoted. Follow me.”

“Haha! So you’re saying I get rewarded if I blow stuff up?”

“If you destroy things for us instead of setting Ginnley on fire over and over again.”

“Who’s Ginnley?”

“Your former teacher. What a profound lack of attention.” He spoke again, quietly, “No wonder you were the last.”

He always spoke weirdly and cryptically. It made Tharja want to hex him, but he always had a ward up.

\--

“This is your new classmate, Tharja.” Tharja took a quick look around. There were four identical looking white-haired weirdoes, three other people with white hair, and five people with red hair. They were sitting in irregular groups. Most of them were staring at her and Validar wide-eyed, all except one. Validar let out a scoff, then turned on his heel and left. A distant door clicked shut.

As soon as Validar left the room, someone approached her. She was one of the redheads, tall, with long hair split into two ponytails.

“Hey! Welcome, how about I show you around?”

“I can see it all from here.” Tharja raised an eyebrow. The older girl smiled,

“Yeah, true. Any questions, or do you got it from here?”

“Just one. Do I have to choose between red or white hair, or does it just happen if I stay in here for too long?”

“What?” The girl glared, then giggled, “Oh yeah! If you’re gonna pick teams, I recommend red.” She winked. “Anyway, I’m Severa! Nice to meet you. There’s a seat in the back next to Noire,” Severa cleared her throat, “Who also has black hair, if you want solidarity.”

“Sorry.” Tharja hung her head, “I didn’t even notice.”

“Don’t worry! You’ll learn everyone’s name pretty quick. I just know everyone well ‘cause I’m the leader.”

“Wait. So this place doesn’t have a teacher?”

Severa nodded, “It’s like herding cats in here sometimes. Huge headache. But that’s my problem. Anyway, find a place to sit or whatever. I’ll help you with review if you need it.”

Tharja pulled at a piece of paper she had tied to her head, “You… get headaches often?”

“Yeah?”

“Uh, same here. I’ve found a way to cure them.”

Severa’s eyes went wide and she stood still. “Continue.”

“There’s one downside. If you remove it, you get an extra-strength headache for as long as you left it on.” Tharja nodded rapidly, then untied her paper charm. She winced as her head throbbed with pain. She stammered, “H-here, I’ve been using this one.”

“Thank you? Are you okay?”

“D-don’t mention it. Like, seriously, do not tell anyone.”

Severa turned to the rest of the room. Everyone was in rapt attention. Tharja felt her face turn red. She hid behind Severa, but those excitable identical children were already racing towards her. Tharja screamed softly.

“Okay, no running, Morgan put down the hammer,” Severa snatched a dangerous implement from one of the kids. Two of them started shouting at once.

“Can you make any other charms?!”

“Make me a paper like Severa’s!”

“Don’t shout at our new classmate! She looks scared of you.” One of the red-heads in the back went to attention.

“I’m not scary!”

This continued for what felt like hours. Tharja clung onto the end of Severa’s pants. A redhead about her age gently pushed through the kids. She crouched next to Tharja, then asked,

“I’m Cordelia. Do you want to get out of here?”

Tharja nodded vigorously. Cordelia, who wasn’t much larger than Tharja, picked her up. Cordelia shouted at Severa, “I’m going to show Tharja where the bathrooms are!”

“Thank you! Get back before noon.”

\--

“I’m so sorry it took me so long to get you out of there.” Cordelia huffed and panted as she set Tharja down next to a sunlit wall.

“You didn’t have to carry me.”

Cordelia smiled brightly, “But it was fun, right?”

Tharja grunted. She wanted to do it again, which probably meant that it was fun. Like lighting her teacher on fire.

“Anyway, I’m mostly apologizing because it took me a while to see Severa’s signal. She’s so smart, she figured out that you were uncomfortable and got my attention. Isn’t she so cool?”

It was nice to talk to someone who clicked with her like that, Tharja had to admit. Severa made her feel instantly welcome. It felt weird, but also good. Tharja eventually responded with a stiff nod.

“So if you don’t have a teacher, what’s Severa’s job?”

“Oh, she’s a student too. She always gets the highest scores.” Cordelia nodded, “I want to be just like her when I’m that old.”

“Ugh, you still have to take tests?”

Cordelia cringed, “It’s… more like impromptu battles. Validar or one of the administrators will show up and throw magic at us, one at a time. Depending on how well we do, we get a score.” She rubbed a bandage on her head, “It’s usually only once a week.”

Tharja stared at the bandage. She gulped. If everyone here had terrible headaches, she’d need to make a lot of charms. She blurted out,

“What kind of magic do you like? I like hexes.”

“Hexes? Nah, I like wind magic.” Cordelia lifted her hands, and the familiar crackle of dark magic appeared. The wind around them shifted, she made the sand form a tiny pillar, but it collapsed quickly under its own weight, “What kind of magic are hexes?”

“They’re… subtle magic that’s tied to someone’s life force.” Cordelia narrowed her eyes, “Uh, it’s the magic that happens when you’re emotional and want something to happen, but you don’t care what.” Cordelia narrowed her eyes even more, “Like, the magic that you use to change the colours of stuff, and summon frogs?”

“Oh, I think Severa knows some of those!” Cordelia’s eyes lit up. Tharja sighed in relief, if she needed to think up any more examples she would’ve burst.

“You really talk about Severa a lot.” Tharja leaned in, “Do you like her?”

“No, she feels… sort of like an older sister.”

“Haha. That’s so sappy.” Tharja smiled, “How do you stand yourself?”

“Like this!” Cordelia stood up and stretched her arms out, “Do you want to hear something else sappy?”

“Definitely not.” Tharja laughed.

“I’ve had a lot of fun talking with you.”

Cordelia crouched down and kissed her on the forehead. Tharja screamed and punched her in the gut. Cordelia let out a low wheeze, then leaned hard on Tharja. Tharja screeched,

“No!” She growled, “No, no I didn’t mean that! Sorry.”

Cordelia laughed weakly and slumped into Tharja’s lap. Tharja was totally paralyzed. Mostly with guilt. Cordelia was weird and wacky but she absolutely wanted to protect her. Her head still ached, but something in her chest ached as well.

**Author's Note:**

> holy grima i cannot believe this i just need to write a fun, quick story, and i end up with an AU where they're all* like 11 and trapped in an evil boarding school. the promised neverland had more effects on me than i realized  
> anyway, thanks for reading and commenting and stuff and oh my gosh this needs so much editing and expansion and i have no time but i also can't seem to motivate myself to write without a deadline and ugh.
> 
> comment if you think i should continue this AU because. gosh.
> 
> *did you know that every playable character who can be a dark mage besides tharja, noire, and laurent have red or white hair in their official art? also i dyed libra's hair white


End file.
